Hi! I have been working on a simple platform game in Java, using David Brackeen's tile based game engine (http://www.brackeen.com/javagamebook/) as a template. I spent a lot of time on sprites and tile images and have a start for a pretty decent looking 2D platformer. I've done some simple things with the programming like added water which effects player gravity, added springs which launch the player in the air, added a score, hit points, life counter etc. The game has super creepy awesome background music, and some oldschool 8 bit sound effects. But I've hit that point where I really need someone elses opinion and programming skills to get this going any further.

If anyone is interested, send me a reply or email me at N1G3L2@gmail.com along with something you have made in java and are proud of. I'm looking for someone with a very good knowledge of java as I hope not to use any external libraries like slick or LWJGL.

I'm making a 2D platformer myself, but I'm going all-in on all aspects. I have sloping tiles, traversable tiles and all that stuff. I'm currently doing my third collision-system from scratch. I've succeeded twice, though, but there were a few kinks I ran into with those approaches, that just couldn't be fixed no matter how hard I thought about it. I could've left it like that, and nobody would have cared...but I'd care. Now I believe I've the right path, and if I do, I'll post a guide on this marvellous forum.

I too started looking at Mr. Brackeen's book, but for every chapter I was just thinking "Dude, this could be done SO much better!", meaning I wanted a challenge, and didn't find many in there. Don't get me wrong, it's a great book for ones first game, but as I've done a big RPG-game already, I felt I wanted more than a little guy jumping about. It did teach me something about controlling animations and such, though.

Well, what I wanted to say, was, even though I'm heavily invested in my own game ATM, feel free to write me with problems you encounter. I'm most likely looking at the same problem, or have found a solution to it already. It's hard to find tutorials for elaborate side-scrollers with parallax scrolling and such, and it's not really that hard when you finally figure out how!

Well, when I say big, I mean that the framework is massive and took a huge amount of time.It only ever got demo-content, so there's just a starting-area (using exits is disabled, but when it isn't it can change areas), but the framework is solid. I didn't implement animations, since I didn't have any artists, and I suck at drawing, but for my side-scroller I do have artists so it got 'em done. Oh, and inventory-screen isn't done yet. I have a massive amount of things I want it to be able to do, but most of this is already implemented in things like the shop, stats-screen and the using of items in battle.

My goal was to make a simple FF7-inspired game in 2D, and I think I succeeded.

Bear in mind, this was my first game with graphics EVER, I used no libraries (still don't), the graphics were done by me, and when it came around to make content, I was disheartened because of my lack of artists.

This is as far as I got...but LOOK AT THE STATS! And the array of weapons and their different attributes. Everything in it is tested thoroughly. Procs, debuffs and everything.

Edit: If you play long enough to reach level 2 in both fire and water elements, you'll get a new magic using both elements. When you reach a new level of any element, you'll be notified of this while in battle, and also you are informed of which magic you've gained, if any.

Wow! Thanks for the comments everybody! I was having some trouble exporting it, but I think I have managed to now, so I will upload it and let you guys give it a shot. Heres the link: http://www.mediafire.com/?bmdvxz43962ox2c

I will put the control info in the game later but for now:Left/Right Arrows or A,D to moveUp arrow or W to jumpSpace to shootHold z for faster movementpretty sure thats it for now...

This is sort of a debugging issue, so if some of you can try it out and let me know if it runs on your systems I would really appreciate it. If it works fine, I will upload it to the showcase. Also please please pleeease don't steal my images.. I put a lot of time into most of them and they aren't even that great, but still, just don't please.

Again thanks so much for the comments guys and sorry for the late reply. I guess I wasn't subscribed to this post. woops =)

That would be super awesome but I don't know if I'm at that level to be able to sell my games. Its a super simple game at this point but maybe if I keep putting time into it I can get it to that point. That would be radical!

I too started looking at Mr. Brackeen's book, but for every chapter I was just thinking "Dude, this could be done SO much better!", meaning I wanted a challenge, and didn't find many in there. Don't get me wrong, it's a great book for ones first game, but as I've done a big RPG-game already, I felt I wanted more than a little guy jumping about. It did teach me something about controlling animations and such, though.

Good luck with the project, and once again: I WANNA TRY IT!

Yeah I know what you mean. He definitely could have made it much better, but I guess that's what I'm hoping to do (already added shooting/ upward scrolling/special tiles/score/lives etc =)). But yes, about a week into it I did get a little bored with it and I actually made a little top-down RPGish engine thing out of the same game. Since this is my first real game though, I think a platformer would be a little bit simpler and easier to learn from so I'm gonna stick with this for now. PS: Your game sounds awesome!!!

I too started looking at Mr. Brackeen's book, but for every chapter I was just thinking "Dude, this could be done SO much better!", meaning I wanted a challenge, and didn't find many in there. Don't get me wrong, it's a great book for ones first game, but as I've done a big RPG-game already, I felt I wanted more than a little guy jumping about. It did teach me something about controlling animations and such, though.

Good luck with the project, and once again: I WANNA TRY IT!

Yeah I know what you mean. He definitely could have made it much better, but I guess that's what I'm hoping to do (already added shooting/ upward scrolling/special tiles/score/lives etc =)). But yes, about a week into it I did get a little bored with it and I actually made a little top-down RPGish engine thing out of the same game. Since this is my first real game though, I think a platformer would be a little bit simpler and easier to learn from so I'm gonna stick with this for now. PS: Your game sounds awesome!!!

Indeed a platformer will teach you many things, in that it incorporates a wide array of the techniques one encounters in 2D games in general. If I could go back, I'd first do a Pong game, and then a simple Breakout game. Then I'd have a good idea of how to do collisions, drawing and controls. Then I'd do a simple RPG to get into state-based design, and then I'd do a simple Mario-game, then maybe a platform shooter. But I can't do things half-assed, so I ended up doing a way too complicated RPG first, and then a way too complicated platform shooter Don't do that ^^

You game looks cool already The sounds are horrible, but hey, we can't all be sound engineers. Also, when I collect many coins in succession, it seems the sounds cut each other off. I like the way you have to jump on bats to get across pits. You've done many of the cool things, like jumppads and interaction with the environment. Good work! Keep it up.

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